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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWhalebird Kombucha Report (1)October 3, 2022 RE: CROSS-CONNECTION CONTROL SURVEY OF WHALEBIRD KOMBUCHA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 BACKGROUND: On September 27, 2022, Mr. Jake Pritzlaff emailed me asking questions about the need to test backflow prevention assemblies located at Whalebird Kombucha, 3576 Empleo Street #1, San Luis Obispo CA 93401. In order to respond to Mr. Pritzlaff’s email, I visited the Whalebird website. In the course of browsing their website I saw that they have installed a “grey water catchment system” to run the toilets in the facility. This sparked a discussion between me and Mr. Marcus Henderson of the City of San Luis Obispo (SLO) regarding the nature of the grey water catchment system and whether or not it presented a hazard to the City of SLO public water supply. OBSERVATIONS: I contacted the business and set an appointment for 3:00 PM on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. I arrived at the business and was escorted through the facility by Mr. Lee Wilkerson, who is the Engineer for Whalebird Kombucha. During the survey, I observed the pressure vacuum breakers (PVBs) installed outside on the east wall of the building and then went inside and observed the reverse osmosis (RO) system and the grey water catchment system for running the toilets. The catchment system utilizes the RO leachate which is piped to an IBC tote upstairs. The tote is then plumbed to the toilets. The tote has a connection to the potable water supply via a makeup line. This makeup line is hard-plumbed into the tote, which is a cross-connection. The toilets have been disconnected from the potable system. Mr. Wilkerson stated that the RO leachate is concentrated at approximately three times (3X) the levels of anything that the RO system removes from the City of SLO potable water. This may present issues with the quality of the leachate water. This need not constitute a potential health hazard (if the leachate does in fact exceed safe levels of any contaminant) provided that staff and customers are advised not to contact the leachate RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. The grey water catchment system meets the definition of an auxiliary water system per County of San Luis Obispo Code section 8.30.020: "Auxiliary water supply" means any water supply on or available to the premises other than the approved public potable water supply. These auxiliary waters may include, but are not limited to, water from another purveyor's public potable water supply or any natural source such as a well, spring, river, stream, harbor, etc., or "used water" or "industrial fluids" Therefore, the premise must be isolated in accordance with County of San Luis Obispo code section 8.30.030: 8.30.030 - Where protection is required. (a)Each service connection from the public water system for supplying water to premises having an auxiliary water supply shall be protected against backflow of water from the premises into the public water system. (b)Each service connection from the public water system for supplying water to premises on which any substance is or may be handled in such a fashion as to permit entry into the water system shall be protected against backflow of the substance from the premises into the public system. This shall include the handling of processed waters, and waters originating from the public water supply system which have been subject to deterioration in sanitary quality. (c)Backflow prevention devices shall be installed on the service connection to any premises that have cross-connections. It shall be the responsibility of the consumer to provide, test, and maintain protective devices as required. 2. The PVBs installed on the east wall of the building are not installed 12 inches above all downstream piping and outlets. The PVBs should be replaced with reduced pressure principle (RP) backflow prevention assemblies located just downstream of the meters. 3. The potable makeup line to the leachate tote should be disconnected and reconfigured in such a way as to provide an air-gap of not less than 2X the diameter of the makeup line so that at no time during use can the potable water line contact the leachate. 4. The restrooms should be provided with signage stating that the toilets use reclaimed water. PVBs installed east wall of building. Not installed at least 12” above all downstream piping/outlets. View looking at east wall with PVBs, showing space to install RPs downstream of the meters. Potable water makeup line (red hose with blue handle ball valve) directly plumbed into the leachate tote. Plumbing at bottom of leachate tote. Leachate feed line to toilet, showing that potable line is disconnected.